Implementing Climate-Smart Agriculture with CSA 101 online Guide

Climate-Smart Agriculture 101 gateway will help you get started to plan your food productivity, to support equitable increases in your farm incomes, food security and development, and guide you right through to implementation on the ground, connecting you with all the resources you need to dig deeper.

“There are still about 800 million undernourished and 1 billion malnourished people in the world. At the same time, more than 1.4 billion adults are overweight and 1/3 of all food produced is wasted. Before 2050, the global population is expected to swell to more than 9.7 billion people” (United Nations 2015) and it is estimated we will require 60% more food production by 2050 (World Agriculture Towards 2030/2050).

“Agriculture is uniquely placed to propel people out of poverty. Agricultural growth is often the most effective and equitable strategy for both reducing poverty and increasing food security (CCSFS, FAO, 2014)”.

“Partners of the Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN) initiative call for political leaders at COP21 to make the most obvious data open; "farmers need weather data in order to adapt to climate change” (GODAN, Climate Smart Agriculture and Open Data at COP21).

In this definition, the principal goal of CSA is identified as food security and sustainable agriculture development (including crops, livestock and fisheries). Productivity, adaptation, and mitigation are identified as three interlinked pillars necessary to achieve this goal while aiming at reducing/removing GHG emissions and tackling the new challenges of climate change. In particular:

Productivity: CSA aims to sustainably increase agricultural productivity and incomes from crops, livestock and fish, without having a negative impact on the environment. This, in turn, will raise food and nutritional security. A key concept related to raising productivity is sustainable intensification

Adaptation: CSA aims to reduce the exposure of farmers to short-term risks, while also strengthening their resilience by building their capacity to adapt and prosper in the face of shocks and longer-term stresses. Particular attention is given to protecting the ecosystem services which ecosystems provide to farmers and others. These services are essential for maintaining productivity and our ability to adapt to climate changes.

Mitigation: Wherever and whenever possible, CSA should help to: reduce and/or remove GHG emissions for each calorie or kilo of food, fibre and fuel that we produce; to avoid deforestation from agriculture; to manage soils and trees in ways that maximizes their potential to acts as carbon sinks and absorb CO2 from the atmosphere.

CSA Guide is aimed at practitioners, decision-makers and researchers who work with or are interested in CSA.

An extensive portfolio of content, a highly visual design, and user friendly interface will allow users to find specific points of interest or follow the flow of information from the basics section, over entry points to CSA, CSA plan, CSA finance, a resource library and case studies.

All supporting information necessary to get started to implement CSA has been carefully gathered and distributed into the following five clusters:

Section provides free access to

numerous entry points for initiating CSA programmes or enhancing existing activities regarding productivity, mitigation and adaptation actions that can take place at different technological, organizational, institutional and political levels. These entry points are grouped under three Thematic Areas: (i) CSA practices, (ii) CSA systems approaches, and (iii) Enabling environments for CSA, as follows:

Each entry point is then described and analysed in terms of productivity, adoption and mitigation potential and is illustrated with cases studies, references and internet links for further information.

Framework for Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment prepared as part of the Indo-German development cooperation project 'Climate Change Adaptation in Rural Areas of India' (CCA RAI).

CSA Sourcebook edited by FAO provides guidelines to help establish a clearer understanding of the institutional environment where CSA technologies and practices are to be implemented.

Targeting and Prioritization approaches narrow an extensive list of possible practices, services, and policies down to a range of best-bet options that can be scaled out, and which may serve to attract investment and funding. The CCAFS-CIAT CSA Prioritization Framework (CSA-PF) - designed for channeling CSA investments and divided into four phases - has the objective to help decision makers identify best-bet CSA investment portfolios that achieve gains in food security, farmers’ resilience to climate change, and low-emissions development of the agriculture sector.

CCAFS Mitigation Option Tool for agriculture (CCAFS-MOT) developed by researchers at the University of Aberdeen, in partnership with CCAFS, the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), and the University of Vermont’s Gund Institute for Ecological Economics,

The “simple decision tree to determine which use- case to select” helps to determine the categories of relevant CSA indicators for the project lifecycle: (1) Readiness indicators; (2) Process indicators; (3) Progress/impact indicators. The ME&L section also describes select approaches, tools and cases that guide and exemplify an entire process or to facilitate specific elements of the project lifecycle.

Section offers links to references and key resources

that allows for further investigations and understanding of specific topics of interest. References, Tools, Key terms, Frequently asked questions (FAQ) are gathered in one place for a quick overview and easy access that can be used as a part of or independently of the other sections of the website.

Ultimately, “data will be instrumental in the support of concepts such as CSA. To be able to achieve investments in managing climate risks, understanding and planning adaptation and exploring ways to reduce GHG emission there is a need for information and knowledge exchange... Investments in sourcing critical data sets and in making them open will be instrumental in achieving the CSA goals (GODAN).

And what is your opinion regarding this and other matters related to CSA?